I have built the Distortion pedal Dr.Boogie but i need help!!! No sound !!!!

[Angelo777]

A few minutes ago , I built a led-prob that checks continious of the wire- roads so to check if the soldering went well and the wires connect good to each other. Everything looks good .... Still no clue what happend ....

[kupervaser]

Try the audio probe!
It is impossible to help remotely with the pictures you provided.

You built 120 pedals and you never had to use an audioprobe?

[oldrocker]

Have you tried the layout section of this forum?  Xavier has a couple of nice layouts for the Dr. B.  It's small, compact and verified.  I even added some mods to it after so there's still room to experiment.

[Angelo777]

You built 120 pedals and you never had to use an audioprobe?

I had an audioprobe ( inside my multimeter ), but if you have read previous posts of mine you can see that at that time i didn't have a multimeter cause the one i had was destroyed. 

Thank you though for your interest

[Angelo777]

Have you tried the layout section of this forum?  Xavier has a couple of nice layouts for the Dr. B.  It's small, compact and verified.  I even added some mods to it after so there's still room to experiment.

Oldrocker,

Thank you very much for everything

I left at the evening today and went to my proffessor-mentor and he gave me one of his awesome multimeters 

So now i am ready to rock n' roll

I also showed him the schematic and even though he specializes mostly on power electronics he told me <<I don't know a lot about these distortion pedal you make ... how they work ... but i think that the wiring is huge and it is creating a lot of noise , so it is impossible to even hear it. And the J201 are very sensitive.>> So i guess that i'll have to make the wires very short and he also adviced me to built the project in a pcb since it already has a lot of distortion as it is .... and he also mentioned to put the pots directly on the pcb so to eliminate any possible noise that come out of the wiring.

Anyway, I thought telling you this cause it might come in handy in some very complex effects you may willing to try to built

[oldrocker]

I think you misunderstand the term audio probe.  It isn't a continuity tester.  It's a two wire cord that you plug in your amp. It has a .1uf blocking cap to test your incoming signal while probing the circuit on one wire.  The other wire would go to ground.   They're simple to make and an invaluable tool for debugging pedal circuits.  Geofex website and diyguitarist website have instructions on how to build one.  Actually in many ways I find it just as if not more useful than a multimeter.  Well I have built a Dr. B a while back on perf and it works great.  

[oldrocker]

Well yes keeping all of the wires as short as possible is a good idea in any high gain distortion circuit.  And keeping component leads short is also a good idea.  As for too much noise that you can't hear the guitar signal is a new one on me.  Wire length I seriously doubt would create too much noise and block the signal unless it was oscillating and sqealing like crazy.  And even then you'd hear the guitar signal and distortion work when you play. But getting a PCB you can't go wrong.  Good luck.  BTW the Xavier layout is a perf layout not a PCB layout.  The guasmarkov PCB layout I believe you can mount the gain pot right on the PCB.  Which is the pot that matters the most.  The other pots I believe are wired in.  It will make putting it in an enclosure a little trickier. Again good luck on which ever method you decide on.

[Angelo777]

I think you misunderstand the term audio probe.  It isn't a continuity tester.

I'm sorry guys !!! I truly misunderstood... I have to built one... sounds its gonna be very handy.... Thanks a lot !!!

[Angelo777]

Finally! I have found the solution ... haven't built an audio probe... couldn't find schematics yet... any help with a schematic would be trully appreciated...

So the problem was my ac adaptor... it gives around 300mA ( or less , it writes on the label it has that it gives 300mA LOL ) so that means that the J201 WILL NOT work no matter what i try cause we have 5 J201 so each J201 need around 100mA to work so 5 * 100 = 500 mA ... I'm building an ac adaptor now that will be from GGG ultra clean with at least hopefully 1 to 2 ampere ... and then i'll finally listen to the pedal... ( wierd never had a problem with other pedals with that ac adaper ... ) I also never use batteries...

Anyway,
Soon i'll upload sound clips of the Dr.Boogie.

Cheers !

[oldrocker]

Ok.  I use 9volt batteries only.  The Highway 89 is the only pedal I built that uses a power supply.  Try a battery first.  If it works in mine, it should work in yours.  When you get the wallwart, you can swap it out.

[Angelo777]

Ok.  I use 9volt batteries only.  The Highway 89 is the only pedal I built that uses a power supply.  Try a battery first.  If it works in mine, it should work in yours.  When you get the wallwart, you can swap it out.

Yeah mate ... i am pretty sure it works ... don't have a 9v battery though but i will wait for my power supply .... oh i can't wait 

[Angelo777]

Hello everyone!

I finally got it to work . I rebuilt it using the Xavier perfboard layout and i built it on a breadboard...

I have sound but it sounds like sh*t I mean like a fuzz ...

The eq is not working properly   and no matter what I try with pots ( I used 100K linear pots instead of trims ).... I have this fuzz sound with a lot of noise in the backround

Any help would be most appreciated !

Thank you in advance,
Angelo

[richon]

it would help a lot if you write the voltage values of each stage.

[Brymus]

I used the layout and etched the transfer from Gausmarkov,> http://gaussmarkov.net/wordpress/circuits/dr-boogey/
Took my time soldering so as to not get any bridges biased all the FETs to 4.5V and it works just like it should,I even socketed some of the more common components people change to try some mods.
I really like the EQ on this ALOT just raise the presence cap up to 57n or higher.And I used a 250K Bass pot.
And try lowering the first two bypass caps from 1 uf to whatever floats your boat.I like .33uf and .68uf for less muddy sound.
Also I added a 12n from input to ground this helps with unwanted niose.
I would use the Gausmarkov tranfer as its really good/refined and made with help of the forum.
Bryan

[Angelo777]

Well ... i would like to give them to you but i was so mad with that sound ( so much effort... ) that i threw the power supply off the window of my room from the 2nd floor and now I have to go to the garden to take it. I'll be back in 15 minutes with the voltages  

Thank you so much my friend ... please don't leave i'll be right back !!!

Cheers!
Angelo

[Brymus]

This might help you if your set on perf > http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_2mvQNIEjC7g/Sk-gDo0ixwI/AAAAAAAAAFA/WAFpG9qT5QE/s1600-h/boogie+layout+2.gif
Also read here ,very helpful starting point > http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=61391.msg481948#msg481948

[Angelo777]

Ok!!! I'm back with the power supply... it has some external damage but its still alive  

I measured it and it gives 14,20 Volts Dc     I guess the fall broke something in there  

Any ideas how i can fix it with a resistor so it gives 9 Volts

AAAAAAAAAAAA I HATE THIS POWER SUPPLY.... It has mud on it too....

Angelo

[richon]

1.- check now that the powersupply works well....  
2.- write down the voltages for each JFET
3.- try the pedal with an AUDIOPROBE from last JFET (and then to the previous to check where the sound goes "bad")

[Angelo777]

Brymus ,

Thank you so much !!!!

Can you please give me some fixed values of the trims that you used so i can just put resistors there and have a sound finally ? PLEaSE !

Angelo

[Angelo777]

1.- check now that the powersupply works well.... 
2.- write down the voltages for each JFET
3.- try the pedal with an AUDIOPROBE from last JFET (and then to the previous to check where the sound goes "bad")

Hello there,

Well the power supply now gives 14,20 Volt instead of 9 
How can i fix this HateFull power supply ? Any ideas ? Please help i am not going to sleep if i don't fix this pedal !!!! AAAAAAAAAA

P.S. IF something goes wrong to the signal how will it sound

Best Regards,
Angelo